6. ye shall know that I am the Lord--by the actual proof of My divinity which I will give in reviving Israel.
7. noise--of the bones when coming in mutual collision. Perhaps referring to the decree of Cyrus, or the noise of the Jews' exultation at their deliverance and return.
bones came together--literally, "ye bones came together"; as in [Jr 49:11] (Hebrew), "ye widows of thine shall trust in Me." The second person puts the scene vividly before one's eyes, for the whole resurrection scene is a prophecy in action to render more palpably to the people the prophecy in word ([Eze 37:21]).
8. So far, they were only cohering in order as unsightly skeletons. The next step, that of covering them successively with sinews, skin, and flesh, gives them beauty; but still "no breath" of life in them. This may imply that Israel hereafter, as at the restoration from Babylon was the case in part, shall return to Judea unconverted at first ([Zec 13:8], ). Spiritually: a man may assume all the semblances of spiritual life, yet have none, and so be dead before God.
9. wind--rather, the spirit of life or life-breath (Margin). For it is distinct from "the four winds" from which it is summoned.
from the four winds--implying that Israel is to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth ([Is 43:5], ; [Jr 31:8]), even as they were "scattered into all the winds" ([Eze 5:10]; ; ; compare [Re 7:1], ).
10. Such honor God gives to the divine word, even in the mouth of a man. How much more when in the mouth of the Son of God! ([Joh 5:25-29]). Though this chapter does not directly prove the resurrection of the dead, it does so indirectly; for it takes for granted the future fact as one recognized by believing Jews, and so made the image of their national restoration (so [Is 25:8]; ; [Da 12:2]; [Ho 6:2]; ; compare Note, see on [Eze 37:12]).
11. Our bones are dried--([Psa 141:7]), explained by "our hope is lost" ([Is 49:14]); our national state is as hopeless of resuscitation, as marrowless bones are of reanimation.
cut off for our parts--that is, so far as we are concerned. There is nothing in us to give hope, like a withered branch "cut off" from a tree, or a limb from the body.
12. my people--in antithesis to "for our parts" ([Eze 37:11]). The hope that is utterly gone, if looking at themselves, is sure for them in God, because He regards them as His people. Their covenant relation to God ensures His not letting death permanently reign over them. Christ makes the same principle the ground on which the literal resurrection rests. God had said, "I am the God of Abraham," &c.; God, by taking the patriarchs as His, undertook to do for them all that Omnipotence can perform: He, being the ever living God, is necessarily the God of, not dead, but living persons, that is, of those whose bodies His covenant love binds Him to raise again. He can--and because He can--He will--He must [Fairbairn]. He calls them "My people" when receiving them into favor; but "thy people," in addressing His servant, as if He would put them away from Him ([Eze 13:17]; ; [Ex 32:7]).
out of your graves--out of your politically dead state, primarily in Babylon, finally hereafter in all lands (compare [Eze 6:8]; [Ho 13:14]). The Jews regarded the lands of their captivity and dispersion as their "graves"; their restoration was to be as "life from the dead" ([Ro 11:15]). Before, the bones were in the open plain ([Eze 37:1], 2); now, in the graves, that is, some of the Jews were in the graves of actual captivity, others at large but dispersed. Both alike were nationally dead.
16. stick--alluding to [Nu 17:2], the tribal rod. The union of the two rods was a prophecy in action of the brotherly union which is to reunite the ten tribes and Judah. As their severance under Jeroboam was fraught with the greatest evil to the covenant-people, so the first result of both being joined by the spirit of life to God is that they become joined to one another under the one covenant King, Messiah-David.
Judah, and ... children of Israel his companions--that is, Judah and, besides Benjamin and Levi, those who had joined themselves to him of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, as having the temple and lawful priesthood in his borders ([2Ch 11:12], [13, 16]; ; , ). The latter became identified with Judah after the carrying away of the ten tribes, and returned with Judah from Babylon, and so shall be associated with that tribe at the future restoration.
For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim--Ephraim's posterity took the lead, not only of the other descendants of Joseph (compare [Eze 37:19]), but of the ten tribes of Israel. For four hundred years, during the period of the judges, with Manasseh and Benjamin, its dependent tribes, it had formerly taken the lead: Shiloh was its religious capital; Shechem, its civil capital. God had transferred the birthright from Reuben (for dishonoring his father's bed) to Joseph, whose representative, Ephraim, though the younger, was made ([Ge 48:19]; [1Ch 5:1]). From its pre-eminence "Israel" is attached to it as "companions." The "all" in this case, not in that of Judah, which has only attached as "companions" "the children of Israel" (that is, some of them, namely, those who followed the fortunes of Judah), implies that the bulk of the ten tribes did not return at the restoration from Babylon, but are distinct from Judah, until the coming union with it at the restoration.
18. God does not explain the symbolical prophecy until the Jews have been stimulated by the type to consult the prophet.
19. The union effected at the restoration from Babylon embraced but comparatively few of Israel; a future complete fulfilment must therefore be looked for.
stick of Joseph ... in the hand of Ephraim--Ephraim, of the descendants of Joseph, had exercised the rule among the ten tribes: that rule, symbolized by the "stick," was now to be withdrawn from him, and to be made one with the other, Judah's rule, in God's hand.
them--the "stick of Joseph," would strictly require "it"; but Ezekiel expresses the sense, namely, the ten tribes who were subject to it.
with him--that is, Judah; or "it," that is, the stick of Judah.
22. one nation--([Is 11:13]; [Jr 3:18]; [Ho 1:11]).
one king--not Zerubbabel, who was not a king either in fact or name, and who ruled over but a few Jews, and that only for a few years; whereas the King here reigns for ever. Messiah is meant ([Eze 34:23], ). The union of Judah and Israel under King Messiah symbolizes the union of Jews and Gentiles under Him, partly now, perfectly hereafter ([Eze 37:24]; [Joh 10:16]).
23. ([Eze 36:25]).
out of ... their dwelling-places--([Eze 36:28], ). I will remove them from the scene of their idolatries to dwell in their own land, and to serve idols no more.
24. David--Messiah (See on [Eze 34:23], ).
25. for ever--([Is 60:21]; [Joe 3:20]; [Am 9:15]).
26. covenant of peace--better than the old legal covenant, because an unchangeable covenant of grace ([Eze 34:25]; [Is 55:3]; [Jr 32:40]).
I will place them--set them in an established position; no longer unsettled as heretofore.
my sanctuary--the temple of God; spiritual in the heart of all true followers of Messiah ([2Co 6:16]); and, in some literal sense, in the restored Israel (Eze 40:1-44:31).
27. My tabernacle ... with them--as foretold ([Ge 9:27]); [Joh 1:14], "The Word ... dwelt among us" (literally, "tabernacled"); first, in humiliation; hereafter, in manifested glory ([Re 21:3]).
28. ([Eze 36:23]).
sanctify Israel--set it apart as holy unto Myself and inviolable ([Ex 19:5], ).
Chapter 38
Eze 38:1-23. The Assault of Gog, and God's Judgment on Him
The objections to a literal interpretation of the prophecy are--(1) The ideal nature of the name Gog, which is the root of Magog, the only kindred name found in Scripture or history. (2) The nations congregated are selected from places most distant from Israel, and from one another, and therefore most unlikely to act in concert (Persians and Libyans, &c.). (3) The whole spoil of Israel could not have given a handful to a tithe of their number, or maintained the myriads of invaders a single day ([Eze 38:12], ). () The wood of their invaders' weapons was to serve for fuel to Israel for seven years! And all Israel were to take seven months in burying the dead! Supposing a million of Israelites to bury each two corpses a day, the aggregate buried in the hundred eighty working days of the seven months would be three hundred sixty millions of corpses! Then the pestilential vapors from such masses of victims before they were all buried! What Israelite could live in such an atmosphere? (5) The scene of the Lord's controversy here is different from that in [Is 34:6], Edom, which creates a discrepancy. (But probably a different judgment is alluded to). (6) The gross carnality of the representation of God's dealings with His adversaries is inconsistent with Messianic times. It therefore requires a non-literal interpretation. The prophetical delineations of the divine principles of government are thrown into the familiar forms of Old Testament relations. The final triumph of Messiah's truth over the most distant and barbarous nations is represented as a literal conflict on a gigantic scale, Israel being the battlefield, ending in the complete triumph of Israel's anointed King, the Saviour of the world. It is a prophetical parable [Fairbairn]. However, though the details are not literal, the distinctiveness in this picture, characterizing also parallel descriptions in writers less ideally picturesque than Ezekiel, gives probability to a more definite and generally literal interpretation. The awful desolations caused in Judea by Antiochus Epiphanes, of Syria (1 Maccabees; and Porphyry, quoted by Jerome on Ezekiel), his defilement of Jehovah's temple by sacrificing swine and sprinkling the altar with the broth, and setting up the altar of Jupiter Olympius, seem to be an earnest of the final desolations to be caused by Antichrist in Israel, previous to His overthrow by the Lord Himself, coming to reign (compare Da 8:10-26; 11:21-45; ; [Zec 13:9]; , ). Grotius explains Gog as a name taken from Gyges, king of Lydia; and Magog as Syria, in which was a city called Magog [Pliny, 5.28]. What Ezekiel stated more generally, [Re 20:7-9] states more definitely as to the anti-Christian confederacy which is to assail the beloved city.
2. Gog--the prince of the land of Magog. The title was probably a common one of the kings of the country, as "Pharaoh" in Egypt. Chakan was the name given by the Northern Asiatics to their king, and is still a title of the Turkish sultan: "Gog" may be a contraction of this. In Ezekiel's time a horde of northern Asiatics, termed by the Greeks "Scythians," and probably including the Moschi and Tibareni, near the Caucasus, here ("Meshech ... Tubal") undertook an expedition against Egypt [Herodotus, 1.103-106]. These names might be adopted by Ezekiel from the historical fact familiar to men at the time, as ideal titles for the great last anti-Christian confederacy.
Magog--([Ge 10:2]; [1Ch 1:5]). The name of a land belonging to Japheth's posterity. Maha, in Sanskrit, means "land." Gog is the ideal political head of the region. In [Re 20:8], Gog and Magog are two peoples.
the chief prince--rather, "prince of Rosh," or "Rhos" [Septuagint]. The Scythian Tauri in the Crimea were so called. The Araxes also was called "Rhos." The modern Russians may have hence assumed their name, as Moscow and Tobolsk from Meshech and Tubal, though their proper ancient name was Slavi, or Wends. Hengstenberg supports English Version, as "Rosh" is not found in the Bible. "Magog was Gog's original kingdom, though he acquired also Meshech and Tubal, so as to be called their chief prince."
3. His high-sounding titles are repeated to imply the haughty self-confidence of the invader as if invincible.
4. turn thee back--as a refractory wild beast, which thinks to take its own way, but is bent by a superior power to turn on a course which must end in its destruction. Satan shall be, by overruling Providence, permitted to deceive them to their ruin ([Re 20:7], ).
hooks into thy jaws--([Eze 29:4]; [2Ki 19:28]).
5. Persia ... Libya--expressly specified by Appian as supplying the ranks of Antiochus' army.
6. Gomer--the Celtic Cimmerians of Crim-Tartary.
Togarmah--the Armenians of the Caucasus, south of Iberia.
7. Irony. Prepare thee and all thine with all needful accoutrements for war--that ye may perish together.
be ... a guard unto them--that is, if thou canst.